Biography of mnesicles

  • Mnesikles was an ancient Athenian architect active in the mid 5th century BC, the age of Pericles.
  • Mnesicles was a Greek architect known (from Plutarch) to have been the designer of the Propylaea, or the entrance gateway to the Acropolis at Athens.
  • Athenian architect of the time of Pericles (460–429 bc), he designed the monumental Doric Propylaea, or entrance-gate to the Acropolis (437–432 bc).

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    Mnesikles : the second architect on the Athenian Acropolis

    Mnesikles was a Classical Greek architect, active circa 440, whose life cannot be reconstructed in detail. He was the architect of the Propylaea on the Athenian Acropolis, while adjacent buildings there, the Erechtheum and the Temple of Athena Nikè, are attributed to him. What these three buildings have in common is their unprecedented design; especially the Erechtheum and the Propylaea violate the foremost rule of classical design by being asymmetrical. By contrast, the Parthenon as the main temple is a normative building on a monumental scale. Many reasons for their deviant appearance can be gathered from the extensive literature on all three. Whatever the influence of the vicissitudes of history or the irregular building sites may be, the real reason for the irregularity of the buildings auxiliary to the Parthenon should be sought in Mnesikles’s purposeful design strategy. If the Propylaea, the Erechtheum and the Tem

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    A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
    William Smith, Ed.

    Mne'sicles

    （Μνησικλῆς), one of the great Athenian artists of the age of Pericles, was the architect of the Propylaea of the Acropolis, the building of which occupied five years, B. C. 437-433. It is said that, during the progress of the work, he fell from the summit of the building, and was supposed to be mortally injured, but was cured bygd an herb which Athena showed to Pericles in a dream. (Philoch. Frag. p. 55; Plut. Per. 13.) Pliny relates the same story of a slave (verna) of Pericles, and mentions a celebrated statue of the same slave bygd Stipax, which, from its attitude, was called Splanchnoptes. (Plin. Nat. 22.17. s. 20, 34.8. s. 19.21.) [P.S]
    William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and långnovell biography and mythology. London. John Murray: printed bygd Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street. In the article on Soranus, we find: "at this pres

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    Mnesicles

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